MaidSafe (http://maidsafe.net/), creators of blockchain-like technologies that can decentralize nearly every aspect of the Internet, including all Web services, today announced the sale of $6 million of its software token, safecoin, in five hours, a record for any kind of crowd-sale. The initial $6 million was comprised of $4 million in Mastercoins (the sale took place using the Mastercoin Protocol) and $2 million in Bitcoin. Noticing the disparity, MaidSafe CEO David Irvine partnered with large buyers to purchase the last $2 million for Mastercoins and relist them for sale—under the exact same terms and at a fixed bonus award of 40 percent—for Bitcoins.

“This is the first sale of this magnitude by any company or foundation using the Mastercoin Protocol and it appeared that Mastercoin purchases were going through more quickly than Bitcoin purchases (which needed to be converted to Mastercoin), with no value fluctuation risk as the terms of 17,000 safecoins per Bitcoin were set and adhered to rigorously,” said Irvine. “In order to be fair to the Bitcoin purchasers, we bought the final $2 million with Mastercoins so we could have a more orderly, fair chance at getting safecoins to everyone who tried to get in the first day.

“We realized that some people who, attempting to arbitrage the price of Mastercoin and Bitcoin, had only five hours to do so. Our larger concern was that Bitcoin holders might get disproportionately disadvantaged because of the two-step process to completing transactions on the Mastercoin Protocol,” Irvine continued. “We assumed the sale would take the entire 30 days. Never in our wildest dreams did we expect this much demand in the first few hours.”

David Johnston, board member of the Mastercoin Foundation, acknowledged the difficulties of rapidly converting Bitcoin into Mastercoin during the fast-paced crowd-sale and said that he and other prominent Mastercoin holders would assist anyone who purchased Mastercoins in the past 24 hours with securing safecoins at the originally offered terms through the conclusion of the crowd sale.

The safecoin tokens are generated and protected by the SAFE (Secure Access For Everyone) network, and facilitate the wide array of applications which can be developed using them, from decentralized cloud storage to secure websites that cannot be attacked. The total number of safecoins available to be purchased by the public is 429,496,729 (10 percent of all safecoins that will ever be created).

The crowd-sale began today at 9 a.m. GMT and will continue through the final sale of the allotted safecoins, approximately $8 million. The price per safecoin will remain fixed throughout the sale at 17,000 safecoins per Bitcoin. Irvine noted that all participants will be given the maximum bonus of 40 percent extra safecoins for a total of 23,800 safecoins per Bitcoin.

Upon the completion of this crowd-sale, the value of existing safecoins will be approximately $24 million, with the remaining 70 percent of a capped number (like Bitcoin) of safecoins to be “farmed” (analogous to mining, but created by contributing resources, such as storage space) by anyone who wishes to add value to the network. The initial tokens will utilize a proxy token, the MaidSafeCoin, which will be recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain. When the full SAFE network becomes operational, MaidSafeCoins will be swapped for safecoins on a 1-to-1 ratio.

About MaidSafe

Founded in February, 2006, with the intent to decentralize the Internet, MaidSafe has been working on Project SAFE for eight years (longer than the Bitcoin blockchain has been in existence). Based in Troon, Scotland, the 14-person team has received a total of $5 million in private investment to date, and it will be using the not-for-profit MaidSafe Foundation (http://www.maidsafefoundation.org) to control issuance and manage the funds generated during the April 2014 crowd-sale.

The MaidSafe platform is designed for third-party application providers to create their own application environment and removes developer risk for startups. Self-authentication allows for everyone to be in complete control of all data, beyond encryption to include physical access. In essence, nobody knows where any data is located, thereby providing completely private and unilateral access by individuals. The network lets users manage any information completely free of any third-party involvement. Users can store, share, chat and publish 100 percent under their own control and knowledge. For more information, visit http://maidsafe.net.